The Government is to ask the European Court of Human Rights to revise its judgment in a landmark case taken by the State over alleged torture by British forces in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

The Strasbourg court's refusal in 1978 to classify as torture the treatment of the 14 "Hooded Men" was cited by lawyers advising President George W Bush to allow "an aggressive interpretation as to what amounts to torture" in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay.

The Government's decision was prompted by revelations in an RTÉ documentary that British authorities withheld crucial information from the court in the original hearing. A number of the surviving men embraced when it was announced in the High Court, where they had begun legal action to force the State to act.

Human rights

In the case, the first ever taken by one State against another at the human rights court, Ireland alleged the UK had breached the European Convention on Human Rights by the torture and ill-treatment of the 14 interned men by members of the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

The detainees became known as the “Hooded Men” because hoods were placed over their heads for prolonged periods during indefinite detention at Ballykelly army base in Co Derry in 1971.

The interrogation techniques that led to the allegations were sensory deprivation; hooding; “white noise”; wall-standing in stress position; and sleep, food and water deprivation.

The Strasbourg court rejected Ireland’s claim that these amounted to torture and instead called them inhuman and degrading treatment.

A “special stigma” was reserved for torture, it said, and the five techniques “did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture”.

Drawing on files in the British archives, however, an RTÉ Prime Time investigation earlier this year found the British government appeared to have known at the time about the long-term psychological effects of the five interrogation techniques.

British cabinet decision

London also considered the techniques as torture at the time, the documentary alleged, and the decision to employ the techniques was taken at cabinet level.

Amnesty International, which had supported the men's case for a review, argued that the new information could have led to a different finding by the court in 1978.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said the decision had been taken following a review of thousands of recently released documents and taking account of legal advice.

He said the “deep concern of the Irish Government and the Irish people” had led to Ireland taking the case against the UK in 1971. On the basis of the new material, the Government would argue that “the ill-treatment suffered by the Hooded Men should be recognised as torture”.

‘Not taken lightly’

Mr Flanagan said the decision was “not taken lightly” and noted that London and Dublin had worked hard to build “stronger and more trusting relations” in recent years. “I believe that this relationship will now stand to us as we work through the serious matters raised by these cases which have come to light in recent months,” he added.

Amnesty commended the Government’s decision, which it said would help the men to have their right to truth and justice vindicated. “Ireland’s decision today bravely flies the flag for human rights and the universal and unconditional prohibition of torture,” said Colm O’Gorman, its executive director in Ireland.